Beast Masters
"Well here we are" Shaun thought to himself as he stared into the encampment of buildings within the shrine and in between all of them a larger one with statues of Komainu beside it. This was to be Shaun's new home, Koma Inu. Shaun heard of the place while traveling through Iceberg and decided it would be an interesting place to check out. As he neared Fiore he heard more and more tales of this famous guild. However he did not just want to join because he wanted a guild to call his home. Shaun had also heard that their guild master was another user of his magic. As he had never heard of another user before he desperately wanted to meet her. Shaun approached the large central building before opening the doors. "Is Samarra Inari here?" He asked as he walked into the building. A tall, blonde man perked up at the new face entering the guild and got up immediately from the couch he was lounging on. He bounded over and stuck his hand out to shake the redhead's hand, a smile radiating from his face like a ray of sunshine. "Well hello there," He began as he looked the man up and down, "don't think I've seen you here before. My name is Itari Renato, I'm a mage here at Koma Inu. Can I ask why you are looking for our master?" Shaun smiled at the shimmering man who greeted him. "Hey there I'm Shaun Zenato." He replied with a smile of his own. "I was looking to join Koma Inu." He spoke as he reached out to shake the man's hand. "Do you think you could take my to her?" He asked the other man, hoping to finally be able to meet the other user of his magic. "Oh well of course! Glad you want to join our guild! I'm still a bit new here myself," Itari begins, gesturing for Shaun to follow him towards the stairs near the bar, slowly defending down into the first sub level of the guild. "But I find that everyone here is really nice and welcoming, always there to help ya out when ya need it, ya know?" Itari hops off the staircase into a hallway that looks into the expansive library, the smell of parchment filling the area. Itari walks to the back of the library to a large office, the door left open. He knocks gently on the door, alerting the women from the face of her papers to the new visitors. She smiles warmly, "Hello Itari, who's your new friend?" Itari indroduces Shaun and explains his desire to join the guild, then promptly leaves to give them room to talk. "Well Shaun, I am Samarra Inari, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am glad you want to join my little family. Can I ask what desire you have to join us?" She says as she quickly summons the guild stamp tool, awaiting his reply first to know he has the passion to be part of a guild. Shaun followed Itari through the building as he marveled at the decor. It was quite a large place on the inside. As they descended into the library Shaun peered at some of the books they strolled by. Essentials of Magic, Enchantment for Dummies, 101 Magic Themed Jokes. All books he decided he should look at later. As he entered the office he finally saw her, Samarra Inari, the other beast master. Shaun was extremely happy and his face was showing it, a large smile was plastered on it and it took him a few seconds to begin speaking. "It's nice to finally meet you Samarra. My name is Shaun Zenato and I desire to join this guild for two reasons. The first is I have been searching for a new place to call home ever since I left my own. As I traveled through the lands I first heard of your guild within Iceberg. As I neared Fiore I heard more and more good things until I could simply go nowhere but your guild, It seemed perfect. My second reason is much more personal, I wanted to meet you. You see I've heard that you are also a user of both of my magics, Beast Summoning Magic and Beast Embodiment." The man finished as he awaited the response from Samarra with anticipation. Samarra is a bit shocked to hear his second reason for joining, having not met anyone outside her family who uses the same magic as her. She looks at the Mage carefully, taking in his appearance. Strong jaw, smaller eyes, seems similar to the build of an Inari. Has the passive red hair gene like Uncle Kage and his family... maybe we are related... No, no, no, I definitely would have heard something about him if we were. Unless... ''Samarra shakes her head with a slight giggle." Well I am glad you were hearing mostly good things of our guild, I'd be a bit worried otherwise. And you practice Beast Magic too," she asked as she brought the stamp up to Shaun giving a look to suggest her asking where he wanted his emblem, "that's a bit surprising to me, but very exciting! My family is the original creator of such magics, and although they said they spread the teaching of it to those outside my family, I can't say I have ever run across anyone who uses it... Well I don't know what you were planning to do with your day, but I could use a break from these papers. Care for a little spar? I would love to see the creatures you have come to be friends with." She says with a cheeky smile, brushing a stay hair back behind her ear. Shaun nodded to her as he pulled out his left sleeve up, allowing the stamp of his new home to be embedded on his shoulder. This moment filled him with unimaginable satisfaction. He was finally a part of a guild and a new family, it was truly a day to be remembered. He then came back from his thoughts of grandeur to see Samarra speak about how her family created the magic he used. It was interesting as he could see his mother in Samarra though his mothers fiery red hair differed from Samarra's greatly. It was then that Samarra suggested a spar, immediately snapping Shaun out of his thoughts. It wasn't everyday he could see another user of his magic in action, much less spar with them. "I'd love to Samarra just lead the way." He spoke happily before quickly adding a few more words. "Just make sure it's a big place though." Samarra giggles, understanding his need for a big space, as she had some beasts that were of a larger scale. She motions her hand for Shaun to follow her, heading back up the stairs and out the back door into a large cleared backyard that was bordered by the nearby forest. "This place big enough?" She asks, gesturing to the 60,000 square foot grass field. There were trees populated here and there for shade and cover, but this area was mainly reserved for sparring, ensuring allowed enough room away from the guild to prevent damages. "Just make sure you don't aim any far reaching attacks towards the guild please." She laughs out. "Well what an interesting way to be inducted into the guild, not many people have accepted a spar with me when they first join, but I am very excited to learn what you can do!" She says as she begins stretching out her arms. "Any ground rules you would like to set? Aside from not serious harm done to each other." She says, bending down to touch her toes, her hands resting flat on the ground and leaving a curious mark the size of a silver dollar in the grass. Shaun stood in awe of the expansive waves of grass and trees. It was quite amazing that a guild owned this much land. "This should do." Shaun spoke as he walked to a place opposite to her, leaving a large space between them. "In terms of other rules I guess no magic but our beast summoning and embodiment magic." He spoke as he let out a chuckle as well. It really wasn't everyday you joined a guild and on that day the guild master challenges you to a spar. Shaun made the first move as a large flash of magic appeared behind him. From it emerged a large blue serpent, easily dwarfing Shaun himself and the guildhall. It stood upon four legs and stood tall but it was obvious it was more comfortable in water. "Samarra this is my best friend Abijam." He spoke motioning to the large blue creature. "No other magic? Well that's quite a shame, really limits my combat ability, and means I have to hold back." Samarra giggles out as she presses her finger to the side of her INDO bracelet to summon out her Taranis Katana. She swishes it around real quick as she is surprised by the beast that he brings out, amazed by the amount of magical energy it must take to summon such a large creature. "Well it is a pleasure to meet you Abijam," she says as she bows in respect towards Shaun and the blue serpent. "Quite a large friend you have there Shaun, I'm very impressed! Guess I should introduce you to one of my friends. This here is Kuuma." She says as she places her hand out to construct a magic circle. From its center a large sabertooth cat pounces out, it's head only reaching Samarra's shoulders, making it rather small in comparison to the competition, yet it shows no sign of cowardice. Samarra adjusts her stance to angle her katana at the ready, giving a coy smile, "Ready when you are my new friend." "Alright then lets go." Shaun spoke with a smile as he drew his own blade. "Abijam you know what to do" Shaun spoke as a roar was heard in response from the great beast. The earth erupted in four fountains of water that gathered together and shot towards Samarra and Kuuma. The water descended towards them from above as Abijam and Shaun readied themselves for any attacks that may come their way. Samarra smiled at Shaun's eagerness, and takes the time that water uses to erupt up into the air to plan her evasive maneuver. She signals Kuuma to erect a barrier of sand above their heads just in case their speed was not enough to evade the onslaught of water. She tells Kuuma to flank Shaun from his right, while Samarra holds her sword back for a strike from Shaun's left. On their path to Shaun, Samarra channels lightning through her katana, aiming it at the water that had just shot up and now soaks the earth, hoping that it would travel along it's path of creation and force Shaun and Abijam to stay within the confines of their trap. Samarra telepathically tells Kuuma to construct 50 Sinai Bullets to fire at Abijam while Samarra goes to slash superficially across his side ribs. As soon the two began charging towards him Shaun jumped onto Abijam's back and the two rocketed into the air, via a large geyser that appeared from under Abijam's body. As the two blasted into the air the bullets were blocked by the cascade of rising water. The lighting however sued up the geyser in a massive surge before touching Abijam. As soon as it touched the beast's body it was absorbed into him. For Abijam was also a beast of lighting, one that could shrug of a thunder strike. From their high point Abijam leapt from the tower of raging water and landed a good ways away, sliding across the ground as he landed. Shaun smiled as the tower of water exploded, sending blasts of water in every direction. He then waved his blade sending a could of ash after Samarra and Kuuma. Samarra cringes, as her firat instinct is to utilize her magic that has been banned from play, forcing her to search for another method of counter attacking. Seeing the beast absorb a lightning that wasn't natural, nor was it his magic, surprised her and made her mentally applaud Shaun for finding such a beast on his travels. Samarra and Kuuma's body jostled a bit at the landing of the gigantic beast, but she had little time to recover as bullets of water were coming her way. Samarra gets hit in the hip with one of the stray sprays of liquid, scoffing at own slow reflex, but Kuuma quickly countered for her by covering them in a 360 degree wall of soft sand. Samarra could see the sand begin to turn to mud as it absorbed the blasts of water from the serpents attack, and she used this time to decide which beast she should use to counter one who could use both water and lightning magic. She notices an odd black powder get mixed in with the sand barrier, unsure of what it's origin or substance really was, and decided that she shouldn't waste much more time. Samarra mentally thanked Kuuma for his service to her and enacted her Beast Embodiment spell to embody the power and spells of this sabertooth. A glowing light took over as Samarra's image transformed into one of a desert warrior, with armor and dual swords to complete it. She then created a magic circle to summon forth Denali, a wolf like creature who left a thin sheet of ice wherever she stepped. When the barrage of water bullets subsided, Samarra dropped the sand wall and slashed her swords in an X formation to unleash two sword pressure waves towards Shaun and Abijam. Denali stood patiently by her side, waiting for the perfect moment to freeze the floor on the next attempt Shaun and Abijam made to advance towards them. Shaun smiled as Sammara used their other shared magic, beast embodiment. It was quite interesting to see it on someone else and the new form was nice as well. He then saw the blades of force shooting towards them, Abijam braced himself as the blades crashes into him causing him to roll back and skid to a halt. Luckily his scaled body hadn't taken much damage. Shaun on the other hand was blown back from his beast, landing quite a ways a way from Abijam on his back. He stood and dashed back to his beast sliding under him before stabbing his sword into the ground. "That was quite a nice attack he called out as he looked down to see the ash covering the ground all the way to Sammara and her beast. Luckily it was far enough away from them to only move them, not harm them. He then jumped backwards while flicking a small device on his sword, sending a spark into the ash. As soon as the spark hit the ash a wave of explosions passed down the path of ash, surrounding Sammara and Denali in a circle of smoke. As this happened another Shaun summoned Zoe, a large green deer-like creature. He then smiled as he initiated his own beast embodiment. His skin was covered in wooden armor and obscured by a mask. In his left hand he now held a wooden staff, his sword still in his right. With the field of smoke hopefully still up he commanded Aijam to launch the electricity back at them. Abijam roared as bolts shot from the spikes on its skin, flying towards Sammara. A large shatter could be heard from the impact of the lightning, as millions of tiny pieces of glass fall to the floor. What Shaun was unaware of was the sand she raised once more for protection from the explosion turned to glass from the insane amount of heat given off by the blast. Samarra's body could be seen with a good amount of cuts from the shards themselves as the smoke cleared out in the crisp air. Samarra laughs out, calling to Shaun, "You really are quite impressive I must say, definitely making me think on my toes here. And ah, I see you have embodied a beast as well, very interesting." Samarra says with a smile as she notes Shaun's changed appearance. She believes his addition to the guild will be a great one in boosting the power and admirable reputation they have already built up. Samarra instructs Denali to begin her Glacier Shrapnel spell, having already froze the floor when Shaun was running back to Abijam's side. Denali nods and begins forming a highly pressurized orb of lightning that will give frostbite to anything it touches when it explodes into hundreds of pieces on contact. When Denali fires off her orb straight for the body of Abijam, Samarra follows up with her own attack by collecting a great deal of sand from the earth and sending it forward in a 30 foot wave following the icy orb, hoping to take down both Shaun and the beast. "It really is interesting to fight against a magic you are so familiar with but can be used in such vastly different ways." Shaun replied as he eyed the attacks Samarra and her beast were forming. Shaun noted the sand becoming glassed as soon as the lighting touched it and decided to use it to his advantage. He pointed forwards as Abijam charged. As he charged Shaun slammed his staff into the ground, creating multiple flowers around the area. Abijam first fired off a large blast of lighting that resonated through the earth and into the wave of sand, completely glassing the wave. He then coated his body in a large coat of water and charged into the ball, freezing the entire body of water around him. Using the force he had already gathered the ice encased behemoth crashed through the glass wave, sending a rain of shards back at Sammara. He then de-summoned Abijam, leaving a giant block of ice chasing right after the shards. Samarra dives under the safety of the large wolf, Denali's Arctic Coat durable enough to take the glass shards coming down on them. The large ice she comes crashing into them, sending them slide back a bit, narrowly avoiding the flowers that surrounded the area now. Samarra stands up, helping her companion up as well, brushing off the ice and glass from her fur. Samarra then drops her two blades, turning to Shaun to begin to pull sand from the earth beneath his feet to slowly encircle him and constrict. Denali follows suit and performs her Fang Bringer spell, having spikes of ice shoot up from the earth in a path aimed at Shaun. Once her spell is on its path for Shaun, Samarra dismisses Denali to send her away from the battlefield and back to her home. Leaving the battle between just Shaun and Samarra. Shaun looked down to see the earth beginning to coil around him. Without hesitation he spun his sword through the sand leaving a circle of ash around him. As the spikes emerged and the sand came back Shaun activated the spark and created a large explosion around him. As the dust cleared he still stood, the wood armor being far more protective than one would think. Shaun looked to Samarra, seeing it was just them again. A smile lit up his face as he placed his staff on the earth. all around the arena thousands of branches erupted outwards and shot towards Samarra, if she were to dodge they would simply follow. The flowers around the arena also opened now, releasing a massive amount of spores that wised through the air. The trees also begin growing these flowers on them and releasing even more spores. Each spore contained a paralysis poison that would slow anything that inhaled it to a halt before knocking it out cold. It was non lethal but effective. Samarra's legs begin to falter, her body taking on the affects of this paralytic pollen. But she doesn't falter for long. Having experience with this type of pollen from her own beast, she has gained an understand of how it works and how to overcome it. Because a paralytic agent blocks voltage gated sodium channels in the muscles, it prevents an action potential from coursing through the muscles allowing it to contract for movement, thus paralyzing a foe. But Samarra's expertise in Lightning Magic allows her to bypass such an obstruction by channeling a greater concentration of electric ethernano to activate these voltage gated channels, allowing her to continue to move while her body processes these foreign substances. Summoning forth her Taranis Katana and Okami Sun blade she continues her assault on Shaun's location, coating the respective blades in their element of lightning and Fire. Once in range, Samarra uses the Okami Sun in her left hand to slash horizontally, aiming for Shaun's abdomen, while following with an upwards slash of her katana in the opposite direction, going from hip to shoulder. The thousands of branches that had been chasing Samarra crashed down in front of her, creating an extremely thick wall of wood. The wall would either stop her blades or at least stall her long enough fro shaun to get away. Using the wall as a springboard Shaun jumped away, landing even farther away from her. He then removed his embodiment, causing the giant green deer to once again emerge. Zoe commanded the branches near Samarra to grow many more pointed branches intent on hitting Samarra. While this went on Shaun swung his sword forward, sending another wave of ash across the field before once again causing it to explode. Samarra's blade was able to easily burn through the first few layers of the wood wall, but her blade stops its advancement as she is forced to pull up her lightning katana to slice through the branches aimed at her body. She jumps back, sending out a wave of sand to cover the ash, turning what Shaun meant to be an explosion, into a layer of clouded glass beneath their feet. She dispels the embodiment of her sabertooth friend, and in turn takes on the embodiment of Nariko, her Raiju who allows her to drastically increase the power of her lightning magic; a loophole in the cumbersome rules that had been set at the beginning of the match. Samarra smirks, finally getting serious in the fight, hoping to end it quickly, "So that is two beasts that you have come across in your time, yet you have been only a year shy of me, surely you have a bit more experience under your belt? Let's see what other tricks you have up your sleeve. First I would like to introduce you to one of my long time friends, Kouki." She says as a golden magic circle appears beside her, a gracefully griffin coming out to bow before Shaun, before Samarra hops on the back of the noble beast. The griffin flaps its wings hard to quickly lift them off the ground as Samarra holds out her hand towards Shaun, "Raiton Dance!" She shouts as a multitude of lightning arrows shoot out and begin to converge of Shaun from all directions. "Of course I do. I just don't like to show off much." Shaun replied with a smile and a small laugh. "But if you wanna kick things up I'm fine with it." Shaun spoke with a smile as he activated another embodiment. Lighting crackled around him as a small explosion unfurled his new form. His body was coated in blue scales and his hair was long and blue. From his back grew a scaled tail and his once free hand held a glimmering sword. Then a large glimmer appeared as another creature was summoned. From the circle came a large skeleton wrapped in rags. It opened it's mouth and sand flew from it, coating the ground around them. As the lighting projectiles approached him massive waves of sand cascaded from below and blocked the spears creating a wall of glass. Of course some of the spears did straggle and crashed into the wall, raining glass shards down on Shaun. Some impaled the man but the wounds were nothing to him as he smiled up at Sammara. He then pointed his other sword towards her as droplets of water began to appear around him. They then charged themselves with lighting and fired themselves at her at extremely fast speeds. Flapping his wings, Kouki releases his ethernano from his pores to construct a multitude of projectiles in the surrounding air, these projectiles taking on the shape of individual feathers. The feathers themselves are constructed of a blend between Kouki’s Wind and Light Magic, with the outer “shell” being made of a high density photon construct, filled with a high pressure wind pocket inside. With another flap of his wings these feathers are fired towards both Shaun and his droplets, traveling at speeds of 80 mph to crash destroy the droplets and rain down on Shaun. Should the feathers get through and hit a solid surface, these feathers will be able to slice through thin material, like wood and flesh, as well as burst open in a small explosion of magic that can easily bruise and batter Shaun at close range. Samarra instructs Kouki to fly a little closer above Shaun, the Griffin's body getting shocked by the few droplets that made it through his feather shower. But the beast stayed in air, giving Samarra enough time to construct a large lightning spear clenched in her hand. She cocks back her arm and throws her Raijins Wrath straight down into the earth right next to Shaun, where it looks as if it is collapsing, as the lightning compressEs down and traveling into the earth. When the length of the spear had traveled down into the earth it spiderwebs out in a 20 foot radius, where merely 2 seconds after impact, the lightning hidden beneath the earth will shoot up like a multitude of geysers. And with feathers from above, and lightning from below, Samarra is confident in her abilities to push Shaun to his absolute defensive limit before this fight is over. "Wow you do not stop do you." Shaun spoke with a smile as the feathers rained down upon him. He deflected most of them but his body was cut and bruised by some, leaving distinct slices through his flesh. Shaun just laughed as the lighting exploded from the ground. Shaun's embodiment allowed him to negate the damage from that. Zoe protected herself with a circle of tightly knit petrified trees. Sufyan the giant skeleton roared as masses of sand whirled around it absorbing the lighting as the geysers turned to glass and where crushed by the behemoth. Shaun looked up at Samarra and gave a small wave. "This is amazing. I never though I would ever face someone like this. You are truly a fit master for this guild." Shaun was quite powerful in his own right. Heck he was amazingly powerful at least he believed it. However Samarra was on another level. They had probably been training in this magic for around the same amount of time. However unlike Shaun she had much more magic and he knew it. It would probably be over much faster had he not restricted all magic but the ones they shared at the start. "Zoe, Oasis." He spoke as a massive amount of trees bloomed from the ground around him, blending well with the sand. The trees glowed as Zoe lay down, fueling them with magic. The circle of trees then began apply massive amount of healing magic to Shaun. His wounds began helping extremely fast, the cuts closing and healing as his body became anew. "I think I'm gonna end it with this Samarra." Shaun spoke as the air around him began crackling with lightning as he held his sword towards the flying pair. Sufyan roared as the air far above all of them filled with sand that shaped itself into thousands of extremely small blades, their surface area and force capable of piercing through steel. The air around Shaun became even more dense with lighting as his sword crackled with electricity. He than swung his other sword through the air sending out a wave of floating powder, ready to detonate as soon as anyone was close. Then the sand rained from above. Samarra knew there was no way to avoid the incoming attack, having it come from both above and below being the downfall of flying. She figured she should take the lesser of two evils while she prepared to switch to her final embodiment for the match, one with whom she deemed could protect her and her griffin on their descent. "Kouki, buy some time for me real quick. Dissipate that powder as much as you can." Samarra instructs as Kouki begins to flap his wings at an incredible rate. Wind began to gather below them, spinning into a large twister with the griffin and Samarra at the eye of the storm. The powder was taken up by the wind, turning it into a blackish Wind Wall of sorts, a spell that was derived from this legendary beast's Aquillo Twister. With the powder taken care of Samarra quickly dispels her Raiju embodiment, not fearing the lightning of Shaun's due to her own natural affinity for it, and began to change form once again. "Embodiment Komainu, Himorogi Delineation." She chants, her clothes changing to a traditional kimono with her hair turning the color of the Komainu's turquoise fur. Sticking her hands out on both sides of her, she begins to form an immensely thick magical barrier. She starts first with protecting her beast, an action that costs her a slice in the shoulder and calf from her inability to dodge the raining sand. But once the barrier surrounds them, Samarra remains concentrated on reinforcing it's construct to protect her and Kouki's decent, dispelling the griffin once they were safely back on the ground again. Samarra is vigilant until the barrage of explosions, sand, and lightning cease; her shield shattering from the force and tossing her back in it's shockwave. "I think that will be it for me as well. I still have a lot to learn from my beasts still, as I don't like to subject them to the dangers of battle all too much. But I must say I am quite impressed with your use of the magic, you really kept me on my toes there. Didn't know if I was going to make it or not..." She says with a sheepish smile as she smooths out her hair. "You really are a wonderful fighter, I feel lucky that you wanted to join my guild Shaun." Shaun smiled at Samarra as she managed to escape his attacks. She was Indeed an amazing mage. Shaun then began coughing vigorously as his embodiment undid itself and Zoe and Sufyan both disappeared. Shaun dropped to one knee as he propped himself up with his hands. "I think I might've overdid it with that lighting." He laughed as he finally recovered and stood on his feet, smiling at Samarra's compliment. "You are as well, I'm quite honored to be here." He spoke as he began to walk off the training field with her. "Your beasts are awesome by the way, how long have you been practicing this magic?" Shaun asked with curiosity. "Thank you! I think they're pretty awesome too." She laughs out as she picks up her pace to keep up with the taller man as they make their way back towards the guild. "Well my parents started teaching me magic since I was five, but I didn't start learning Beast Summoning until I was around eight. That's when I went through my family's ceremony and made my first contract with my fox Kyna. So you could say she is one of my longest friends! What about you?" "I began learning this magic around the age of 12 and went on from there. I made my first contract with Abijam when I was thirteen, he was much small back then." Shaun spoke as he thought back to a much smaller Abijam. "He's been my longest and closest friend. I then spent years traveling the world making new friends and forming more contracts. I'm probably better at interacting with beasts than humans to be honest." Shaun spoke with a small laugh. Samarra laughs alongside her newfound friend, "Yeah I can relate to that at times. With beasts you can tell exactly what they're thinking; or rather what they're feeling. Humans are a lot more complicated and tend to hold onto emotions a lot longer than the beasts we have both come to love...but it can't be helped I guess,"She smiles as they enter the guild prepared to go their separate ways, "just gives us ample opportunity to learn. Well Shaun, here is where I must bid you adieu. I hope that perhaps we could hang out together once more in the future?" "Thanks for everything Samarra. I'd love to hang out again." Shaun spoke with a wave as they turned their seperate ways. Today Shaun had joined a guild, fought it's master, and had one of the best expiriences of his life. It was truly wodnerful to finally have a place to belong to. ''I'm gonna introduce myself to the other members then we're gonna train some more Abijam. Shaun thought to himself as he walked deeper into the guild.